In our modern and hectic world, ready-to-eat meals are highly desired. While, for example, ready to eat meals comprising farinaceous-based food products exist, it is very difficult to find such meals with the quality (e.g., taste, color and texture) of home cooked meals. Particularly, conventional pasta compositions found in ready-to-eat meals are often over-cooked, thereby displaying soft, sticky and mush-like characteristics. Such conventional pasta compositions are over-cooked since they are usually cooked or hydrated and retorted or pasteurized prior to being packaged. After being packaged, the consumer is instructed to reheat the same prior to serving, resulting in an undesirable pasty food product that has been heated numerous times.
There is increasing interest to develop a farinaceous-based food product that is firm with a nice bite (al dente) after cooking, and especially, after being retorted and reheated. This invention, therefore, is directed to a farinaceous-based food product, like a pasta composition, comprising a protein additive and a hydrophobic ester. The farinaceous-based food product of this invention, unexpectedly, has excellent taste, texture and color characteristics and is not sticky, even after being retorted and reheated.
Additional Information
Efforts have been described for making pasta compositions. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,084, retorted pasta products containing high amylose starch are described.
Other efforts have been disclosed for making pasta compositions. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,573, acidified pastas suitable for packaging are described.
Still other efforts for making pasta compositions have been disclosed. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,575, pasta with improved retrogration tendencies is described.
None of the additional information above describes a farinaceous-based food product with superior taste, texture and color characteristics, even after being retorted and reheated. Particularly, none of the additional information above describes a farinaceous-based food product having a scanning election microscopy image that visually displays substantially no protein fiber gaps or voids at about 2000 times magnification.